Title: Misfits of Aincrad.

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific.

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I do not own Asuna or Liz or Silica or Sachi or... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: After the First Floor Boss Fight, Kirito deals with Kibaou in a different way. This leads to him meeting a number of Players who play SAO in their own unique ways. AU which diverges significantly from Canon.


"Damn it!" Reaper exclaimed as she desperately tried to recover her weapon while the Plains Wolf she had been aiming at charged her.

Atalanta stepped between Reaper and the Plains Wolf, killing it with a single slash of her short sword. As this was Floor Two and Atalanta was significantly over levelled for the Floor, even her less used short sword made quick work of the Plains Wolf.

In the two weeks since Floor Four had been opened, there had been little progress finding the entrance to the Labyrinth up to Floor Five, let alone the Boss Room. Atalanta was down on Floor Two partly to level up her one handed strait sword skill but mostly because Reaper had begged her to come in case Reaper got into trouble, just in case. Normally Reaper would have no issue with Floor Two Monsters, being not far behind the best Players, though she had yet to be part of a Floor Boss Raid. The issue was that, after defeating a Field Boss on Floor Four, Reaper had acquired a new weapon that she really liked and needed to train up on it, because it was of a different class to her old weapon, a dagger.

The new weapon was a Kusarigama, a one handed sickle with a long chain attached to the shaft of the sickle and a weighted ball at the end of the chain. The Kusarigama had its own skill, so she was starting from scratch in her weapons skill, and the chain added possibilities that few other weapons had, though most of the sword skills for such possibilities seemed to come later. One attack was using the weighted ball to tangle the chain around the opponent's weapon and another was throwing the sickle to strike at the enemy and then using the chain to rapidly retrieve the sickle. It was the latter she had tried against the Wolf and had completely missed her target.

"I think there is a safer way to do this." Atalanta said, once Reaper had retrieved the sickle. "Kiki, Thomas and a few others have set up a school on Floor Three in a Training Zone a little outside town where the teach the proper way to use weapons without Sword Skills."

"I doubt any of them will know the Kusarigama." Reaper replied.

"Probably not, but they have training dummies that you can practice against." Atalanta pointed out. "The dummies not anything special to practice against, but way better than trying your throws and tangles against a tree branch or something. Once you up your skill a bit you can spar against other Players."

The pair returned to the Town on Floor Two and teleported up to Floor Three. It took no more than five minutes to walk to the school, which was a large fenced off open area with a row of training dummies in one section and groups of Players scattered around. As they crossed the border a message flashed up on both Reaper and Atalanta's vision stating they were entering a Training Zone, similar to the message received when entering a Safe Zone.

Training Zones were quite rare in SAO and mixed elements of being out in the field with being in a Safe Zone. In the field your HP went down if you were attacked and you could freely attack another player whenever you wanted, though if you attacked a Green Player, of which basically all Players were at this stage, your got penalised by Going Orange, where your Player Marker went from Green to Orange. Orange Markers indicated Players deemed by the System to be Criminal and could be attacked without penalty by Green Players, though if an Orange Player did not commit a crime for a few days, they would revert back to Green.

In a Safe Zone, you would not be damaged nor cause any damage to a Players HP Bar unless it was part of a system administered Duel, hence a Player was immune from harm in a Safe Zone, but no use of weapons gained Skill in a Safe Zone. Training Zones were a middle ground. It was assumed if you were in a Training Zone that you were expecting to train, so combat can happen between Players without a recognised Duel that won't result in Going Orange and will improve Weapons Skills, but no Player can go below forty percent health in a Training Zone, no matter how much Damage an Attack does. Training Zones also have Training Dummies, where you can practice alone against a simple algorithm of very basic attack and defence, though Training Dummies only provide a fraction of the Weapon Sill gains training against another Player provides, let alone what was gotten from hunting Mobs in the field.

Reaper's eyes scanned the Training Area. There were a few one-on-one training fights going on, mostly between Players using different weapons, but most of the Player groups were in a kind of formation, with all the Players wielding the same or similar weapons, with one Player out the front facing the rest and leading them through a series of moves for that weapon. The sizes of the groups varied from six in a group of Dagger Wielders to the largest of twenty-six.

The group of twenty-six was the exception that proved the rule, in that the weapons wielded in that were varied, but they all were one-handed weapons with a shield. That group had Kiki running them through Shield Bash and Deflection drills.

There were a number of other Players scattered around, some were simply watching or chatting. A very few were using the Training Dummies. One group that was watching seemed to be glaring daggers at one of the training groups, the only training group that did not have one member out front teaching the others the drill. The glaring group were nine Players all dressed in solid coloured kamishimo outfits with one handed curved swords at their hips. The drilling group of six were all dressed in pants, shirts and coats of dappled browns, reds and greens, with Shoufa around their heads and black veils raised as they did a flowing, almost dance like, routine with their strange short spears and leather bucklers.

"The Role Players are at it again. The Ninja sure as hell don't like the Aiel." Atalanta said.

"Why not?" Reaper asked.

"Just look at them. The Ninja wantabes are sitting around playing at being Ninja. They claim they are stealthy and all that but they are mostly just talk. They do some training, a bit of levelling but mostly just sit and watch." Atalanta said, indicating to the glaring group. "The Aiel on the other hand were here just before dawn, every two hours they switch between their Bows, unarmed combat and the Siswai, their spears. They'll be doing their kata for another half an hour or so, then they will split off up to Floor Four for questing until just before dusk, come back down for another two hours of either one on one sparing or free for all amongst all six, before heading off and repeating the same thing again tomorrow."

"That seems… intense." Reaper replied.

"A little." Atalanta admitted. "See that pair sparing? Rapier versus Longsword?"

"Yeah." Reaper said, looking at the pair. "Isn't the Rapier wielder Asuna? I've seen her in the Boss Broadcasts. I don't recognised the other."

"Second line Player. Good potential. But Asuna, she's almost as bad as the Aiel. Gets here at dawn, goes against the training dummies until a decent enough opponent shows up, does one on one or two on one, with her as the one, sparring for several hours, then heads out to Floor Four for most of the day, then back at dusk for form practice." Atalanta admitted as she spotted someone familiar moving towards the Training Zone. "Oh, and here comes Kirito."


Kirito walked into the Training Zone looking around. Unlike Asuna and the Aiel, he preferred to get his quest clearing and levelling up on Floor Four done in the morning and his training done later in the day. He figured it was better to get the dangerous fighting done when he was fresh and the safer training done when he was tired. Advantage of learning to fight when tired with much less risk.

He saw Atalanta off to the side watching with another female Player he vaguely recognised, Asuna was taking apart some unlucky Longsword wielder, Sovin Nai was over with the other Aiel. He looked over the other groups, trying to decide if he wanted a one on one spar or if he would just run through some of the new moves he had been developing, when his eyes settled on the Two Handed Sword group.

There were two types who wielded Two Handed Swords. Big muscular Players who wanted to be Damage Dealing Heavies and those who eventually wanted to wield a Katana, as the Katana Skill required a certain level in both One Handed Curved Swords and Two Handed Swords to unlock. And indeed Kline, the scruffy Samurai wantabe was in the group. After a few seconds watching he recognised the moves the group were doing. Those were Kendo strikes. He did not think any of the Two Handed Heavies who had participated in the Boss Raids knew Kendo. Imagine his surprise when he saw it was not a Heavy leading the drill. It was a small but fiercely determined young girl, a few years younger than himself, with short dark hair and green eyes. He stopped in shock. He knew that face.

"Suguha?" he whispered.

TBC….

A/N: Sorry about the cliffy, but the conversation between Kazuto and Suguha is going to be… something, not sure what but something, and I did not want to cram it into the end of this chapter. It needs its own space. Also, the Ninja Role Players in this fic are not your typical modern movie depiction of clothed in black with heads covered and a strait sword. They are going to be more like historically accurate Ninja. If you want an idea of what they look like, watch the 1993 Ninja Scroll movie. Kagero and the Mochizuki Kōga Ninja Team rather than the Devils of Kimon's force of throwaway troops.